updated 06:20 am EST, Fri December 13, 2013

Extra capital to finalize design, start production of Oculus Rift

Oculus VR has raised another $75 million in funding, in order to bring the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset to consumers. The extra funding, following an earlier $16 million round in June and the original $2.4 million raised through its Kickstarter campaign, will be used to finalize the design of the consumer version, as well as to help it finally enter production.

The Series B funding round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, reportsGamesIndustry.biz, with Spark Capital, Matrix Partners, and Formation 8 also contributing. Marc Andreessen, founder of Netscape, will gain a seat at the Oculus VR board. Over 40,000 developers and enthusiasts are working on products relating to the Oculus Rift, according to Oculus VR CEO Brenda Iribe, with the extra funding claimed to "help take us to the final steps toward our ultimate goal: making virtual reality something consumers everywhere can enjoy."

Last month, gaming luminary John Carmack left id Gaming in order to work on developing the Oculus Rift, and is now the Chief Technology Officer at the company. "What will revolutionize gaming, and interactive content in general, is putting people inside the digital world. This is our goal at Oculus, and this Series B will help s get there," claimed Carmack.

The Oculus Rift Development Kit, priced at $300, is a headset that vaguely resembles ski goggles. Weighing 369 grams, it boasts low latency 360-degree head tracking, a 110-degree field of view, and a resolution of 1280x800, though consumer kits could offer a 1080p resolution instead.